Most folks who have met Abby will tell you she’s a friendly little dog. Okay, she’s a really, really friendly, attention seeking, gotta be the ‘center of attention’ pain in the a@! sometimes, but that is one of the things about her breed that I was attracted to: Beagles are friendly dogs.

I unwittingly did a major “disservice” to her as a puppy as I did not do my job as alpha pack leader when it came to teaching her the social graces whileamongst other dogs. (To those who don’t have dogs, that’s proper socialization with other dogs and creatures of that ilk.) Some might say I didn’t do a very good job of socializing her with humans as well, as she can be a bit over bearing in her quest for attention. I admit it, I didn’t do much of anything to socialize her with other dogs — Hence:

• She didn’t know the joys of a Doggie Park until well into middle age
• Its hit or miss when she has had forced “play dates” meaning, we were going to someone’s house who also had a dog
• Abby gets along with neutered male dogs better than female dogs (spayed or not) but not by much
• She loves to stay in our backyard, we are not afraid of her hanging outside since the house has a fence from I love dog friendly all around

Oh the horror, and the embarrassment for the both of us. So the outcome of this lack of social skills is that as we are out for our daily constitutional and come upon another dog, Abby displays poor doggie manners.

• She becomes very excited as we approach other dogs (i.e. it’s not “cool” to show too much emotion) by jumping and straining her leash to get to the other dog
• Yips and howls at other dogs as we approach from behind. I guess this
  can be construed in some doggie circles as “catcalling” and is a no-no in
  upper class circles.
• Goes right for the old “butt-sniff” in effect saying “Wazzzz up?”
  skipping the more proper “face-sniff” first introduction
• Once she has “sniffed” her hello, she has the temerity to then ignore
  the “sniffee” and lavish all her cuteness and attention to the other dog’s
  human.
• Inappropriately sniff’s the other dog’s human for potential snacks –
  remember she’s a food hound

So it should come as no surprise that after almost a year in our neighborhood,
her reputation as a poorly mannered, low class dog has become established, and
now she is being snubbed by other dogs as we go for our walks.  Just this
morning a Chow “cut” her, meaning she gave her the “persona-non-grata”
look away as our paths crossed.  Her owner could not have been more embarrassed
and apologized profusely.  Later in the walk, a little Pomeranian walked
right by without so much as look in poor Abby’s direction. What was Abby’s
response to this lack of attention?  Did she retreat to her bed when we
got back and sulk?  Well, yes and no — she is Queen Abby after all, so
she did go and flop first on my bed, and then reluctantly, when yelled at, go
to her own bed.  But, sulk or get depressed?  Hardly –  she’s
one of those dog’s that knows what ever happened, it’s not her fault or her
problem.

Guess she’s okay with being a low class dog. But I have to wonder, does all this make me a low class human?

Two songs have recently invaded my mind and will not let it go. Neither song is very new, but I’ve heard these 2 songs and never knew who they were by. The first song haunting me is “Heaven” by Los Lonely Boys. I heard it last weekend while driving down to Richmond and didn’t have the radio station’s request line number to call to ask who it was (they did not announce it – Radio station gripe #1) and the second song is “My Immortal” by Evanescence. I’d heard this song for a while now, but never heard its title and artist on any station. (That’s Radio station gripe #2- but is a rant for another time). These 2 songs have captured my consciousness for similar and yet different reasons.

Los Lonely Boys: Heaven
(Go to: Listen: – Heaven | Track)
• This song reminds me of the subdudes and my friend Gary Hirstius
• Haunting harmonies
• A certain “Je ne suis pas s

A friend of mine just sent this to me as a quote of the day by George Eliot, and it really hit home about friendship and the people we care for. When they first told me the who it was by, I couldn’t quite place the author – but the name was familiar, and yet, I knew it wasn’t who I thought it was, that there was some sort of gender obfuscation at work here. It wasn’t until I Googled George Eliot, did I realize who she was. Anyway, here’s the quote:

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts, nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

–GEORGE ELIOT (Mary Ann Evans 1818 -1890)

Whoohoo! Thank you to everyone who went and voted for FedStats at the Webby Awards web site. Your voting helped us to win the People’s Choice award for best Govt./Law site.

Alas, the folks at Healthy Ontario won the actual Webby best Govt./Law web site, but we think it’s merely because:

1.   A US site won last year so they had to give it to anther country (Our contention)
2.   Their site does look nice
3.   They made mundane topics seemingly cool with funny header titles (e.g. ‘Bottoms Up!’ for a blurb about diaper rash or ‘Cry Me a River’ for a blurb about tears. )

You just know those Canadians are gloating in their oh, so friendly way… But they didn’t get their fellow country men and women to rally to their cause and help them to win the peoples choice award, like we did. So thanks to all the people I know who voted for us and helped us to win! One more kudos for the old resume…

It seems the great toilet paper hanging controversey of all time is still at hand. What is the correct way to hang toilet paper? I thought I knew, but when I was in Buffalo this past weekend, at a fashionable cousin’s house, I discovered that they hang the toilet paper completely opposite of me.

So which method do you ascribe to: Over top and down or behind and down?